Reviews by busterwhite:

Poured a golden yellow with a 1 finger head and a good amount of lacing. Smells of pineapple, mango, and sweet malt. Taste matches the aroma - pineapple and mango up front with peach flavor in the middle. A little taste of alcohol on the finish. A pronounced sweetness throughout. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with good carbonation.

Overall this is an awesome IIPA. It is sweet, but not cloyingly so. Very big fruit flavors from the Citra dry hop but balanced by the big dose of Maris Otter malt. (503 characters)

More User Reviews:

Poured a burnt orange tinged lighter shade of golden with a thinner but well retained white head that stuck well to the sides of my imperial nonic.Booze and fruit hit the nose along with some deep resin,overripe fruit I should say,its nice but you can tell its a doozy.Citric and very resiny on the palate up front, with big alcohol and caramel sweetness,overripe tropical fruit and again the deep resiny hop flavors are the main component but it can get sweet in the finish.A nice DIPA,I like the big hops more than many other of the style,but like many of the style the alcohol and sweetness is "large and in charge". (619 characters)

Appearance – This is a beautiful bright but cloudy orange in color with a nice, off-white, almost yellowish head that left rings inside the pint glass that never did go away.

Smell – The orange rind is raucous here and the pine resin makes this a “kitchen sink” DIPA. The Terrapin website boasts of the Otto malts here but damned if I can find any at the nose.

Taste – There’s some sweetish malt at the taste but man these hops are huge. This ale is dripping with hop resin and the aftertaste lingers forever. This is not cheap. These are huge, monster hops, very complex, and almost has to be the last beer of the night.

Mouthfeel – The carbonation is light in keeping with the style and the body quite big if not full. It’s smooth with a strong bitter finish.

Drinkability – This is a good-drinking DIPA but very big and not for the novice. If you like big DIPAs though and are a little burnt out on the cheap pretenders give this a try. (961 characters)

T-M- The taste is very warm and intense with a massive body of alcohol and hops. First i'd like to say that is good. Warming alcohol esters dominate with a DIPA median of citrus hops (grapefruit, orange and plums.) Has a smooth mouthfeel for the alcohol content but still burns the palate.

D- Drinkable if a hardcore DIPA is needed because this one is exactly that... cheers. (740 characters)

This beer is massive—our palates are Toyko, and Hopzilla absolutely destroys. As veteran beer drinkers, we can and don’t mind taking the hit. Sip after sip, you’d think it would let up, but it does not … it just keeps on rampaging and nearly numbs our taste buds. Excellent. (591 characters)

A: Poured into my pint glass this beer pour a little too pale, with a fluffy head that is to quick to dissipate and leaves little to no lace. This, however is about the only "flaw"

S: The DIPA has the right amount of notes as you'd want to get from hops. Piny, fruity, citrus, its all there in equal amounts. The hops are very balanced with each other.

T: The flavor starts out as a hoppy tongue bruiser. After about half the pint is gone, the malt backbone finally kicks in to balance this brew and give some relief.

MF/D: The mouth feel surprisingly is full and chewy. The drink, however, might suffer a tab bit because of the harshness of the hops, but this is a hop heads dream.

Overall, This is the real east coast version of a west coast IPA. Grab this up while it's fresh and still on the shelfs, because Hopzilla will come, he will reak havoc, and he will leave and never return again. (946 characters)

2012 Monster Beer Tour Review:12oz into a Terrapin Shaker Pint. Pours a crystal clear deep gold with very little head and next to no lacing. The nose is very boozy. Muted hops and hot fusel alcohols. Taste is a hot mess: sweet alcohol, next to no bitterness, and a very generic, flat, and distant hop flavor. Mouthfeel is about average for a DIPA, maybe a little heavier/slicker than I'd like, but I can't really tell because I want this stuff out of my mouth as quickly as possible.

Overall, this is Terrapin's biggest disappointment to date (and that's saying a lot). To put it into perspective, as of right now (March 2012) I can find side projects on shelves from the middle of 2009. They just sit forever. The ONE Side Project that flew off shelves? The original Hopzilla. Why, then, would they change it so drastically? Anyways, I'd advise against picking this one up, especially at $13-$16/4-pack. If Terrapin reverts this beer to its original glory, I'll gladly restore my original review. Until then, thumbs down.

Original 2010 Side Project Review (Score was a 4.63):22oz into a Terrapin Shaker Pint.

At nearly 11%, this beer could be expected to be abrasive, but it isn't. This is the best side project Terrapin has produced to date. Don't skip it - it is well worth the $7-$8 price of admission. (1,653 characters)

Nice to see a DIPA come out of the hard to keep track of Side Project series from Terrapin Beer Company. Appears a bright clouded brilliant orange apricot tone, with a bright full slightly off white head. The head billows above the rim of my chalice and has nice chunky lacing surrounding the edges of my glass. Aroma contains bitter grapefruit edges pretty much a nose ful of zest, strong citrus flowing notes with sugary candy coated hop flow to it. I don't care if people want to call the hop nose a bit one dimensional this stuff smells great, hints of tropical fruit esters with straight up citrus peels. Flavor 100% Maris Otter malts I didn't know what to expect here, but this is excellent malts backed up by pure bitterness. A bit sugary malt sweetness but that's okay I will drink some hop candy. My friend John Diflorio picked up a case of this at Robinson Beverage, dropped 80 bucks, I do like it and it's definitely worth a shot but I could picture getting tired of an almost 11% DIPA. Sweet tooth with hop bitterness wrapped around it, big ass DIPA alot of bitterness and loads of malts. It works but the grapefruit peel bitterness with the sugar malts makes this way too drinkable. As it warms a bit of residual sugars really cling to the palate, still a burning/tingling mix of hop oils and alcohol linger on the palate, and hop burps blow out the nares turning me into a real life Hopzilla. Drinkability as mentioned prior could be summed up in single terms, tasty...dangerous...hop-a-fuckn'-licious...that's it. (1,528 characters)

Pours a hazy golden-copper color with a large-bubbled white head. The head recedes into a thin ring around the glass leaving decent lacing.

Smells of candied apricots and tropical fruits with good amounts of slightly bready pale malt aromas lurking in the background.

Tastes better than it smells. Smooth pale malt flavors kick things off and are joined almost immediately by loads of tropical fruit flavors. Hints of citrus and herbal hop flavors work their way into things midway through the sip, before fading a bit to allow the malt flavors to carry through to a solidly bitter ending.

Mouthfeel is good. It's got a nice thickness with soft carbonation.

Drinkability is very good. I finished my glass without any problems and could easily have a few more.

Overall I thought the cask version of this was more drinkable but not quite as complex as the tap version. Still, the more I have this beer the better it becomes, well worth a shot before it's gone. (996 characters)